~ Incentives and bonuses are generally meant as rewards for
\ngetting a job done well, yet the current municipal government is
\na resounding failure.<\/p>\n
;JP;
\nANPAk..r..<\/p>\n
JP\/7\/DANIEL<\/p>\n
Daniel Ziv
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Jakarta's hard-working city councilors will celebrate the
\npensive holy month of Ramadhan and the painful Oct. 1 fuel price
\nhike with a very special holiday gift. Governor Sutiyoso has just
\ndoubled their monthly salary to a whopping Rp 50 million
\n(US$5,000). In case that isn't enough to fill their luxury cars
\nwith premium fuel, they will also receive a Rp 1.5 million (about
\nUS$150) bonus for every \"public meeting\" attended and \"city
\nvisit\" conducted.<\/p>\n
One councilor, quoted anonymously in the local press, said he
\nand his colleagues could each conduct up to 50 such activities
\nper month -- meaning Rp 75 million per month in incentives alone.
\nAdd this to their Rp 15 million monthly housing allowance, plus
\nother bonuses for positions held on council committees, and it
\nemerges that on average Jakarta's \"public servants\" each take
\nhome around Rp 150 million (about $15,000) per month.<\/p>\n
This means they earn roughly 215 times the average local wage.
\nIt also means they earn about as much as U.S. Vice President Dick
\nCheney (though to their credit, Jakarta's councilors haven't
\nmanaged to destroy any major Middle Eastern countries just yet).<\/p>\n
Jakarta's Chosen Few earn more than city councilors in Los
\nAngeles, twice as much as those of Boston, and four times as much
\nas the impoverished city councilors of Dallas, Texas. And that's
\njust their official pay. Jakarta councilors could surely teach
\ntheir American counterparts a thing or two about \"making the best
\nout of a term in office.\"<\/p>\n
What boggles the mind is not just the outrageous amounts our
\ncouncilors get paid, but that half of it is given in so-called
\n\"incentives\" to attend public meetings or conduct city visits.
\nPerhaps I'm missing something, but isn't that what city officials
\nare paid to do in the first place? It's a bit like giving a
\ndentist a inflated salary just for existing, then paying him or
\nher all over again for agreeing to show up at the clinic and
\nexamine a patient's teeth.<\/p>\n
Governor Sutiyoso -- who can certainly afford such a dentist
\non his reported monthly salary of Rp200 million ($20,000) -- said
\nthe increase was meant to \"encourage councilors to concentrate on
\ntheir jobs and refrain from involvement in corruption.\" A
\nbeautiful thought, except that the Governor is wielding a carrot
\nwithout a stick. If he were at all interested in eradicating
\ncorruption he'd be punishing offenders rather than padding their
\npockets in the supposed hope that an extra few thousand dollars a
\nmonth will make them suddenly uninterested in multi-billion
\nRupiah kickback deals.<\/p>\n
And here's another problem: Incentives and bonuses are
\ngenerally meant as rewards for getting a job done well, yet the
\ncurrent municipal government is a resounding failure. It
\nadministers band-aids (like the cute orange busway system that
\nserves a tiny percentage of Jakarta's yuppie commuters) to cover
\nthe gaping wounds of a city that literally chokes on the fumes of
\nits own unrestrained development.<\/p>\n
Jakarta can be fixed. Ten years ago Bangkok was headed toward
\nenvironmental disaster, until effective governance and a dash of
\npolitical and civic imagination saw the city improve in leaps and
\nbounds. But imagination is something Jakarta's councilors seem to
\nmuster only when it comes to their own spectacular pay packages.<\/p>\n
It would be an interesting (if highly hypothetical) exercise
\nwere Jakarta to be run like the popular video game Sim City. In
\nit, players assume the role of mayor and must plan, administer,
\nmaintain and improve their virtual city with precision and
\naccountability, against a ticking clock and with limited
\nresources. When crises hit -- such as floods or fires -- players
\nmust rise to the occasion and provide immediate solutions rather
\nthan pathetic excuses. Otherwise -- it's \"Game Over.\"<\/p>\n
Imagine for a moment if Jakarta's city councilors received
\nsalaries on a Sim City basis, i.e. on actual performance,
\nmeasured by tangible indicators that reflect the state of the
\ncity at a given moment. For instance, first indicator -- air
\nquality; second -- the flow of traffic; third -- people's access
\nto well-maintained public facilities; fourth -- availability of
\nlow cost housing and an end to the current draconian policy of
\nslum evictions; fifth -- green spaces like parks and trees as a
\npercentage of the city's total land area; and sixth -- the speedy
\ncompletion of properly functioning flood canals.<\/p>\n
Jakarta's councilors would begin this \"game\" from zero,
\nearning -- in true civil servant spirit -- minimum wage, or about
\nRp 700,000 (US$70) per month. With every documented improvement
\nin the above indicators, their salaries would jump exponentially
\nalong with the quality of life of their constituents. Thus, if
\nthey did a great job and Jakarta became as clean and well run as
\nSingapore or San Diego or Sydney, the talented legislators behind
\nthis urban success story could earn $50,000 a month and few
\npeople would hold it against them.<\/p>\n
But real life is nothing like Sim City. Based on past
\nexperience, the approaching rainy season and inevitable floods
\nwill again turn Jakarta into Swim City. And we'll all cringe in
\nthe knowledge that if our city councilors even bother venturing
\noutdoors to witness the consequences of their own inaction,
\nthey'll each receive an extra Rp 1.5 million for the noble \"city
\nvisit\" gesture.<\/p>\n
The writer is author of Jakarta Inside Out and Bangkok Inside
\nOut (Equinox Publishing) and was founding editor of Djakarta! --
\nThe City Life Magazine.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bincentives-and-bonuses-are-generally-meant-as-rewards-for-1447899208",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}